Isn't this a paradigm of the internet generation? We are all connected and read all the market studies, company reports and analysis. Where once the BofD "knew best", now their actions are subject to the "people".
This goes double for CLWR. Crest and other Cl A shareholders are no dummies. They have "lawyered up" and can make the assessments just like the "special committees", and can see the "golden payouts" offered to influence the fiduciary judgement of those involved in the recommendations -- as well as the corrosive treatment of subsidiaries like CLWR.
Son and Hesse are "old school" and think because they are big and inside they can ignore the little guys. I hope Crest and the other Cl A shareholders take Hesse/Stanton to jail, and lease CLWR spectrum back to S at a nice "make well" rate after they trade CLWR independence in exchange for their own personal freedom.

1:52 pm June 11, 2013

Spokanimal wrote:

In the case of Clearwire, it goes far beyond just a normal bidding process.

The Clearwire saga began some 3 years ago, as sprint set about executing a campaign to lower expectations of Clearwire ever becoming a viable entity. Sprint constantly downplayed their need for clearwire's capacity, intimidated clearwire's strategy to procure it's own, retail subscribers, and even chummed up with a nearly bankrupt Lightsquared... ALL with the intent of manipulating clearwire's share price to a level that would enable sprint to buy clearwire for pennies on the dollar...

... or, as it turned out, get a good buyout price for sprint by virtue of sprint being able to deliver clearwire's capacity to the buyer on the cheap. In fact, Softbank's primary merger financier REQUIRED sprint to acquire 51% of clearwire before they would even sign off on the acquisition bid for sprint.

The whole affair with clearwire has been a process of manipulation and trashed fiduciary duty. Sprint even devised a "payoff scheme" for clearwire's board and management via a "cashable, stock-option" plan that pays them richly for steering sprint's bid for clearwire to completion.

Not only have Crest and Kellett been dead on about the need to vote these low-ball offers for clearwire down, but numerous independent sources have valued clearwire's assets, net of debt, substantially higher than even Dish's $4.40 bid for the company... a company so rich in spectrum and state-of-the-art infrastructure that Verizon would have to acquire 50% more spectrum than they already own just to equal the massive holdings of clearwire.

It's my hope that DOJ or the courts will look closer at the corporate malfeasance that's been so evident in the handling of clearwire. Sprint has used it's power to destroy clearwire's minority shareholders for personal gain... essentially a textbook example of stock manipulation. If nothing else, clearwire's bought-off board needs to recuse themselves from the deliberations, and an independent entity should be assigned by justice to arbitrate this thing.

Most of all, the Clearwire saga needs to serve as a foundation for the reform and strengthening of laws that address stock manipulation, fiduciary responsibilities, and incentive programs designed to badly hurt shareholders as Sprint's cashable, stock-option scheme has done with clearwire's board. All of this is set to be heard in court, with the blessing of at least one judge so far, but it all speaks to the reason why it needs to go beyond that, to DOJ and the halls of congress.

6:14 pm June 11, 2013

Bob wrote:

"a company so rich in spectrum and state-of-the-art infrastructure that Verizon would have to acquire 50% more spectrum than they already own just to equal the massive holdings of clearwire."

While I agree with some of your commentary, this is fundamentally deceptive. Yes, CLWR has a huge amount of spectrum, but not all spectrum is created equal. CLWR's 2.5GHz spectrum is fundamentally less attractive (due to propagation limitations) than VZ's spectrum portfolio. Not all spectrum is created equal.

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